Lee E. Johnson, whose counsel resulted in more than 15,000 patent, trademark and other intellectual property assets in his 40-year legal career, recently stepped down from his membership of Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, at which he has been a named partner, to become of counsel.
Because Johnson has seen it all, from the beginning of new technology companies, the middle crescendo and the maturation of corporations, he is considered by many as a go-to intellectual property counsel. Now 65, Johnson marvels with pride at the successes of Northwest companies that he has represented.
Every lawyer dreams of a breakthrough case, playing a role that etches him in the memory of the bar, and Johnson has had many. But a memorable moment came in 1979 when a young Bill Gates, who stepped down in June from his day-to-day role at the company he built from scratch with Paul Allen, came into Johnson’s office to sign paperwork connected with the registration of the famous trademark MICROSOFT for computer programs.
Johnson’s presence is so reassuring that he was never dominated by enormous egos, practices of other counsel or throngs of East-coast lawyer extras thrown into a conflict. In his practice, whether crafting a patent asset, clearing a trademark or taking a lead to resolve a conflict before litigation, he essentially projected the same image — stabilizing, strong-willed, confident.
His career is essentially a roadmap of the blossoming economy of the Northwest: from an initial reliance on natural resources, such as fisheries and forestry (Johnson manages one of the oldest trademark portfolios of the firm, including the trademark SHIP AHOY for canned salmon, dating to 1912), to aerospace (Johnson worked on patents connected with aluminum alloy for the Boeing Company, which became accepted as the classic skin material for many airplane wings in use today), to software and biotechnology. One entrepreneur called Johnson, after she successfully sold her company, about her new purchase — an 80-foot yacht.
It’s a long way from Ames, Iowa, where John-son was born on October 4, 1942. He graduated in 1964 from Iowa State University, obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering after paying $99 per quarter, and where in his junior year he ran for student-body president and lost 2-to-1 to a smooth-talking operative who flunked out of school soon after.
By that time, Johnson was convinced he had found his life’s work, after fleeting thoughts of studying corporate law. He was accepted by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. for its patent-training program in Washington, D.C., to which Johnson took his first commercial airplane flight on a Lockheed Electra from his hometown in Iowa. Johnson worked full time for four years at DuPont during the day and at night studied law at Georgetown University School of Law, which was then housed in a four-story, red-brick building. (Today, the law school covers more than two city blocks near Capitol Hill and its alumni roster includes many luminaries.)
In 1968, after graduating from law school, Johnson was automatically offered a full-time job with DuPont as a patent attorney. No longer a wide-eyed youth, Johnson came into his own as a man with a desire to better provide for his family. Unheard of in those days, he turned down a secure corporate job with DuPont because he deemed the salary offer uncompetitive. He left for a Dallas law firm to build up his legal experience.
A terrible tragedy turned out to be a blessing for Johnson and his family. In 1971, an Alaska Airlines aircraft went down, causing the death of a partner of Christensen & Sanborn, predecessor to the law firm of which Johnson was eventually named partner. Ron Havelka, a colleague of Johnson’s from his DuPont days at Georgetown, called Johnson encouraging him to check out Christensen & Sanborn, a small patent boutique.
In early October 1971, he flew to Seattle. Orland Christensen, the senior partner, and his gracious wife invited Johnson to their home for dinner. Johnson was struck by the beauty of the surrounding waters and mountains. He felt he could fit in at the firm, given that Havelka was practicing there, as well as Bruce O’Connor, another Georgetown graduate, who received his degree a year after Johnson. An offer was immediately made to Johnson before he flew back the following Monday.
After consulting with his wife, Janet, the Johnsons and their three-year-old son, who is now a practicing pediatrician in Washington, D.C., with a renowned reputation for treating child allergies, moved to Seattle before the end of the month.
In those days, there was some urgency to be admitted to the bar, unlike the casualness that law graduates of more recent generations observe. No winter bar review was available, so Johnson scrambled to track down old law school notes, Martindale Hubbell references and other legal sources to study. It worked: Johnson passed the bar in February 1972.
Johnson’s successes are built on a straightforward standard: “Provide the highest quality legal work products.” In 1976, Johnson became a partner and the firm was designated Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness. The firm’s reputation grew along with the growth of technological and business talents in the Northwest. Given its favorable location, the firm remains in Seattle. This appears to be a sound strategy, as many firms from California, New York, Pennsylvania, even Houston, Texas, in recent years have opened remote offices here in Seattle.
As in years past, one still can find Johnson in the office every day. He has always made time, however, to enjoy the natural abundance of the Northwest. For their first 10 years here, the Johnson family hiked widely throughout the region. As his success grew, Johnson eventually explored the waters of Puget Sound with his first yacht, a 21-foot Glassply, co-owned by his good friend and law partner, Gary Kindness. The first yacht was soon followed by a 36-foot Grand Banks. (I remember this beautiful boat well, having clerked at the firm in 1995 when Johnson and the partners of the firm took a number of boats and attorneys on a weekend trip to the San Juan Islands where I first saw black porpoises playfully chasing the boats.) In 1996, Johnson and Kindness purchased another Grand Banks, but a much grander one at 46 feet, which is moored in the San Juan Islands in the summer and near Seattle in the winter.
Johnson also has transitioned politically. He gradually moved from the political right closer to the middle and became a “common sense Republican.” He strongly believes in the power of the individual to better his life by the dignity of hard work and not by government handouts. He also has been known to cross party lines to support a particular candidate or cause; he financially backed the attorney general campaign of his friend, now-ABA President William Neukom, a Demo-crat, many years ago, and has supported a myriad of other progressive causes, such as the equal rights movements for gays and lesbians in the Northwest and Washington, D.C.
Now, at the autumn of his career, Johnson continues the work ethic of a Midwesterner coupled with the sense of enjoyment of a Northwest native. Although many things have changed — the soaring number of companies, more complex technologies and casual professional dress — Johnson confirms certain things have never changed in his practice of law: “Be impeccable with your word;” “Insist on the highest professionalism;” and “Provide timely legal advice.”
Peter Chu is a member of Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, and can be reached at peter.chu@cojk.com.
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